James Earl Jones has died at 93. The iconic voice of Darth Vader and the man who played Thulsa Doom opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian, Jones was blessed with a deep, cavernous voice that made Vader a far more memorable villain than he might otherwise have been. (David Prowse, who played Vader's body-inside-the-suit, was miffed to learn that his own voice would not be used, but despite the fact that Prowse was a massive bodybuilder by the standards of the 70s, his voice was, shall we say, not that impressive.) Jones had more roles on stage and screen than I can possibly name here, and I have personally seen only the smallest sliver of his entire body of work. All I know is that the voice of Darth Vader will always ring clearly in my head, and there is no one who can replace this most magnificent of voice actors. RIP.
I saw Jones on stage in 2017, in a production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana in Cambridge. He played the elderly poet Nonno. Hearing that iconic voice in person was quite an experience. He was truly a legend.
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